---
title: "From cost-effectiveness to Value Perception: How Second-hand E-commerce Reshapes Consumer Psychology"
type: "Topics"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/topics/33242536.md"
description: "In the first half of 2025, the second-hand e-commerce sector has taken on the "leading role" mode in the digital retail field. State Subsidies continue to drive the concept of a circular economy to break through, with Wanwu Xinxing (Aihuishou) achieving a record high of nearly 5 billion yuan in Q2 revenue with a year-on-year growth rate of 34%. Xianyu's daily transaction volume exceeded 1 billion, and the 618 GMV of multiple platforms such as Zhuanzhuan significantly increased. As digital retail enters the stock era, second-hand e-commerce is gradually becoming a remarkable growth dark horse. According to the "Second-hand E-commerce Market Data Report" released by the E-commerce Research Center of NetEconomics in April..."
datetime: "2025-08-22T09:44:14.000Z"
locales:
  - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/topics/33242536.md)
  - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/topics/33242536.md)
  - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/topics/33242536.md)
author: "[美股研究社](https://longbridge.com/en/profiles/2152743.md)"
---

> Supported Languages: [简体中文](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/topics/33242536.md) | [繁體中文](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/topics/33242536.md)


# From cost-effectiveness to Value Perception: How Second-hand E-commerce Reshapes Consumer Psychology

In the first half of 2025, second-hand e-commerce opened the "leading role" mode in the digital retail field.

State Subsidies continue to drive the concept of circular economy to break through, Wanwu Xingsheng (Aihuishou) achieved a historical high of nearly 5 billion yuan in revenue in the second quarter with a year-on-year growth rate of 34%, Xianyu's daily transaction volume exceeded 1 billion, and the 618 GMV of multiple platforms such as Zhuanzhuan increased significantly.

In the current era of stock in digital retail, second-hand e-commerce is gradually becoming a remarkable growth dark horse. According to the "Second-hand E-commerce Market Data Report" released by the E-commerce Research Center of NetEase in April, the user scale of second-hand e-commerce has exceeded 660 million, and the transaction scale has exceeded 645 billion yuan, maintaining rapid growth.

A new track heading towards 1 billion users and a trillion market is definitely not just a policy dividend, there must be a fundamental change in consumer logic behind the rise of the industry.

So, how does the circular economy truly "hit" the new needs of consumers, and what new trends in the consumer industry are hidden under high growth?

**Second-hand e-commerce steps on the dual dividends of policy and people's hearts**

Since the beginning of this year, the focus of macro policies has increasingly fallen on "benefiting people's livelihood and promoting consumption", and second-hand e-commerce happens to be riding this east wind.

The "Two New" policies connect enterprises on one end and consumers on the other. Enterprises continuously improve product iteration speed and quality through "renewal", while consumers release purchasing power through "replacement", forming a two-way resonance of front-end demand activation and back-end circular industry chain upgrade.

In this context, second-hand e-commerce platforms naturally become the most direct beneficiaries of the circular economy.

In the first half of the year, the growth momentum of second-hand e-commerce platforms was obvious. Wanwu Xingsheng's second-quarter transaction volume of second-hand goods across the platform reached 10.3 million orders, a year-on-year increase of 22.6%, driving revenue to approach the 5 billion yuan mark for the first time, and profits also steadily increased.

**It is worth mentioning that behind the expansion of scale, second-hand transactions are moving out of the old impression of "cost-effectiveness" and into broader value consumption scenarios.**

If past second-hand consumption was for saving, now it more reflects a change in mindset. Young people want the satisfaction of consumption wisdom and high-quality consumption experience. Especially in high-frequency updated categories like mobile phones, consumers are increasingly accepting "trade-in", and second-hand e-commerce has become an effective channel to release potential consumption power.

Wanwu Xingsheng's financial report also confirms this trend, with a 63.7% year-on-year growth in self-operated selected income in the second quarter, and 1P (self-operated) product sales revenue reaching 4.56 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34%, continuously contributing major driving force for revenue growth.

**Meanwhile, the value of green consumption is being redefined. More and more young people regard "environmental protection" as part of their lifestyle, and second-hand transactions in their eyes are not just "cashback", but also an expression of values.**

In addition to consumer electronics trade-in, consumers are keen to sell more stock items to improve life quality and engage in consumption that better fits short-term needs. In the second quarter, Wanwu Xingsheng's multi-category recycling GMV was 1.87 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of over 110%. Among them, gold recycling GMV increased by 118% year-on-year, and luxury goods recycling GMV increased by 63% year-on-year.

Besides Wanwu Xingsheng, Zhuanzhuan also achieved a 40% growth in recycling orders during the May Day period, with hair dryers, vacuum cleaners, rice cookers, and DSLR cameras becoming popular recycling options, and the categories of idle items consumers are selling are becoming more diverse.

With fierce growth and category expansion, a sustainable value consumption and green consumption trend is gradually forming. The reconstruction of consumption logic requires the response of the supply side, and only when supply and demand are well matched can consumption be better boosted. How to continue adjusting supply along this trend to truly fit consumer needs will be the key to whether platforms can convert dividends into long-term growth.

**Under the pursuit of quality life, how does second-hand e-commerce lead supply-demand adaptation?**

The high growth of second-hand e-commerce is not just about the surge in transaction volume, but more importantly, platforms are continuously adjusting supply methods behind the scenes, upgrading the originally single buying and selling relationship into a more complete consumption ecosystem.

**Firstly, second-hand e-commerce is accelerating its evolution from a "transaction platform" to an "integrated service ecosystem".**

When consumers want to enjoy a higher quality life within a limited budget, the traditional C2C model is difficult to meet the demand due to lack of trust and inconsistent standards, hence the trend of more transparent and controllable self-operated and C2B2C models.

In the first half of the year, Wanwu Xingsheng continued to strengthen the toC retail of self-operated goods. In the second quarter, self-operated selected income achieved a 63.7% year-on-year growth, and the proportion of self-operated product toC income further increased to 34.4%. This indicates that more and more users are willing to pay for "guaranteed quality".

Coincidentally, Zhuanzhuan also actively reduced its C2C business in the second half of this year, focusing more on the inspection and quality assurance services of the C2B2C model.

**Ultimately, the competition in second-hand e-commerce is not just about who can sell goods, but who can better control product quality and improve user experience.**

Wanwu Xingsheng connects C2B recycling, B2B distribution (Paijitang), B2C retail (Paipai), and compliant refurbishment to form a closed loop. This model makes product quality more controllable, service standards more unified, and consumers naturally more assured. For example, Paipai's consignment model stabilizes front-end display, after-sales, and product standardization, achieving a 128% year-on-year GMV growth in the second quarter. This is the result of trust stimulating transaction demand.

**Secondly, under the concept of "everything can be recycled", second-hand e-commerce's recycling categories are moving towards scale, and platforms are continuously enhancing their fulfillment capabilities.**

From the performance in the first half of the year, Wanwu Xingsheng is breaking through the original single category of mobile 3C, expanding the logic of "circular economy" to high-value categories such as gold and luxury goods, moving towards a broader "circular economy big market".

In the financial report conference call, Wanwu Xingsheng clearly stated that "exploring more high-value categories" is listed as a new growth path, with multi-category recycling transaction volume and income growing nearly 110% year-on-year. Behind this is Wanwu Xingsheng's continuous strengthening of offline recycling infrastructure capacity building. By the second quarter of this year, a total of 804 Aihuishou stores have opened multi-category recycling services, including 692 self-operated stores and 112 franchise stores.

The core pain point of second-hand non-standard product transactions is trust, and the offline fulfillment network provides a "face-to-face, on-site inspection, on-site payment" credible experience, which is unmatched by pure online models. According to Wanwu Xingsheng's disclosure, the proportion of users choosing offline delivery fulfillment in first to fourth-tier cities can reach 80%. It can be foreseen that the combination of online traffic and offline fulfillment will become the basic configuration of the entire industry in the future.

Picture: Aihuishou store multi-category recycling service

**Finally, if the evolution of second-hand e-commerce is only seen as an upgrade of channels and fulfillment, its potential is clearly underestimated. The underlying logic of consumption is changing, and the younger generation values the sense of value and experience of second-hand e-commerce platforms more.**

Xianyu proposes the new proposition of "Magical Xianyu", cutting in with the imagination of "what other items can be second-hand", stimulating the emergence and landing of more non-essential, emotional, and service-type demands; Wanwu Xingsheng proposes "making idle items fully utilized", exploring richer front-end scenarios, and recharging users' wallets, all indicating that platforms are no longer satisfied with just being transaction facilitators, but want to establish connections with users on a spiritual level.

From the transformation of consumption entry to part of the lifestyle, second-hand e-commerce responds to consumers' multiple demands for quality, environmental protection, and value recognition. Supply and demand are thus better matched, and the entire consumption ecosystem benefits accordingly.

**Circular economy in the era: from industrial upgrade to sustainable consumption ecosystem**

Since the beginning of this year, the booming development of the second-hand economy corresponds to the evolutionary momentum of the broader consumer market in the future.

With the user scale of second-hand e-commerce approaching 700 million people, directly pointing to first-hand e-commerce as a new growth point in online retail, the value of the circular economy of platforms bursts out under the promotion of scale effects.

**For the consumer goods industry, second-hand e-commerce creates commodity circulation, thereby stimulating industrial upgrade.**

Taking the consumer electronics category with the most vigorous C2B user recycling demand as an example, the industry is ushering in a new round of intelligent upgrade. In the second half of the year, new machines from Apple and Huawei will be launched, Meta will release new Hypernova smart glasses, and new AI glasses from domestic brands such as Alibaba and Xiaomi will be launched one after another.

After the autumn new product launch, during National Day or Double Eleven, brand owners usually increase new machine sales, and how to stimulate consumption and promote consumers to replace new products becomes the focus of industry development.

**Nowadays, second-hand e-commerce platforms are deeply integrating into the official trade-in channels of brands, connecting second-hand recycling with new product sales, and this model is accelerating the circulation speed of the entire industry chain.** For example, Wanwu Xingsheng has established cooperative scenarios with many high-quality brand manufacturers, in addition to JD.com, Apple official website and flagship store, Huawei Mall, Xiaomi Mall, it has also expanded official cooperation with brands such as Honor, DJI, and ZTE.

Looking forward to the future, China's single-digit second-hand penetration rate compared to developed markets (over 30%) still has great room for improvement (CIC data), which creates broad imagination space for the cooperation model between second-hand e-commerce and brand merchants. Platforms need to penetrate deeper into offline stores, brand official trade-in channels, and other naturally existing consumer scenarios, becoming "supply chain service providers".

**From a macro perspective, this industry chain cooperation promotes the logic of the circular economy, not only changing the circulation efficiency of consumer goods but also responding to social issues of green environmental protection and activating consumption.**

Economist Kenneth Boulding once pointed out: "Humans will eventually understand that the earth is not a prairie to be squandered, but a spaceship that needs precise circulation." The role of second-hand e-commerce in "dual carbon" development is becoming increasingly prominent. In June this year, Wanwu Xingsheng released its fifth annual ESG report, responsibly recycling and disposing of a total of 137,000 waste electronic devices last year, reducing electronic product pollution by 21.92 tons, and the report also set a carbon reduction target for 2030 for the first time.

Meanwhile, the "Social Economic Value Research Report of Idle Second-hand E-commerce Platforms" by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences also proposes a viewpoint: "For every 1% increase in idle second-hand e-commerce transaction volume in cities, the total retail sales of social consumer goods increase by 0.1%."

**To tap into this consumption-promoting potential, second-hand e-commerce has made more attempts following consumers' pursuit of value and spiritual satisfaction.** For example, Wanwu Xingsheng links the points system with recycling, turning "selling idle items" into a consumption incentive, allowing users to gain more rights such as priority purchase rights and exclusive customer service outside of transactions. This "recycling-points-consumption" closed loop is actually cultivating a new consumption habit and building a sustainable consumption ecosystem.

It is not difficult to see from the platform's incentive behavior that the story of the circular economy is shifting towards deep value creation.

In the past, second-hand e-commerce played more of a supplementary role to the first-hand economy in the new economy, but entering 2025, the industry is gradually starting to "create waves" actively, exploring new consumption values, deeply empowering mainstream brand merchants, and becoming a key role in the upgrade of China's trillion-dollar consumption industry.

Those who stand at the center of the stage deserve more spotlight.

Source: US Stock Research Society

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